艰苦卓绝

艱苦卓絕

jiānkǔzhuójué

idiom #45,382

Meanings

1 extraordinarily arduous (idiom)
2 of exceptional hardship and perseverance
3 unparalleled in its difficulty

Characters

difficult; arduous

unparalleled; extreme

Examples

他们经过艰苦卓绝的努力，终于成功了。

Tāmen jīngguò jiānkǔzhuójué de nǔlì, zhōngyú chénggōng le.

After extraordinarily arduous effort, they finally succeeded.

这是一场艰苦卓绝的斗争。

Zhè shì yī chǎng jiānkǔzhuójué de dòuzhēng.

This was an exceptionally hard-fought struggle.

科学家艰苦卓绝的研究换来了突破。

Kēxuéjiā jiānkǔzhuójué de yánjiū huàn lái le tūpò.

The scientists' extraordinarily arduous research led to a breakthrough.

Tips

history

The phrase echoes 《宋史·邵雍传》, which describes the scholar Shao Yong studying through extreme hardship: 寒不炉，暑不扇，夜不席者数年 — no stove in winter, no fan in summer, no mat at night, for years. The idiom foregrounds the 卓绝 ('unsurpassed') quality of endurance.

register

Formal and heroic. Used for prolonged struggles of historic scale — wars, revolutions, major scientific projects, decades of effort. Not used for a single hard week at work.

Stroke Order

艰 jiān

苦 kǔ

卓 zhuó

绝 jué